


All is Calm, All is Bright

by athousandsmiles



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, F/M, Family Feels, Holiday Fic Exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 07:49:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13142238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/athousandsmiles/pseuds/athousandsmiles
Summary: The Swan-Jones family decorates their first Christmas tree together.





	All is Calm, All is Bright

**Author's Note:**

> This is my Captain Swan Secret Santa gift for @snowbellewells on tumblr. Unbeta-d. Please feel free to point out any errors, so I can fix them. Thanks for reading. And Merry Christmas, or whatever you may celebrate, to the Captain Swan fandom. Also, come say hello over at tumblr, if you're so inclined. @tales_to_ease_the_winter_in

The living room was littered with tissue paper and boxes, bits of glitter catching the light here and there on the hardwood floor. But the tree, their first together in the new house, was starting to look more and more festive with all the bulbs and balls Emma had pilfered from her parents’ endless supply (she suspected a bit of magic was at play there), and a few she’d purchased herself. 

Henry had given up stringing popcorn and was now shoving handfuls into his mouth as though he hadn’t eaten in a week, while occasionally mumbling directions to Emma about where to hang this or that ornament. 

“What’s that?” Emma asked, as Killian returned to the room with a box secured tightly beneath his left arm and his hip.

He set the box down on the table in front of her, and lifted the lid. “It’s our first Christmas together, Swan. I’ve made some ornaments for our tree to mark the occasion. I’ve heard it’s somewhat of a custom here.”

Her mouth fell open and all she could do was stare at him for a moment, speechless. He settled down beside her on the couch, gently closing her jaw with the curve of his hook. “Is that not so, love?”

“No, yeah, I mean, yes. I just… how… when did you have time?”

He stole a glance over at Henry, who shrugged and continued eating popcorn. “Perhaps the lad and I weren’t sailing quite as often as we may have led you to believe. And Belle showed me how to use the magic box at the library to get ideas. There is a page on there you wouldn’t believe, Swan. You can roll the little rodent for miles and never come to the end. Pinterest, I believe she called it.” 

“O… kay,” she answered, “and it’s called a mouse.” Peering down at the box, her hand hovered and she looked back up at him as if for permission to dig in.

“Go ahead, love,” he said as pushed the box closer.

The first ornament she pulled out was a fairly intricate wood carving of the Jolly with little canvas sails and even precise yellow, red, and blue stripes painted along the sides. It rested on a gently rolling sea, waves curling over the helm. “You made this?” she asked, unable to keep the awe from her voice.

His hand went up to scratch along the back of his ear, cheeks flushing as he spoke. “I may have had a little help with that one from the wooden man child.”

“Don’t let him fool you,” Henry piped up, a note of pride on his face. “August showed him how to use the wood carving tools and Killian did the rest.”

Emma smiled fondly at the two of them, her guys, and gently set the little ship down on the table. She cupped Killian’s cheeks and planted a quick kiss of gratitude on him. “That’s amazing. Is there anything you can’t do?”

“Aye, love, plenty,” he answered with a bit of a smirk. 

“If you guys are gonna get mushy, I’m going to my room,” Henry said, thunking the popcorn bowl down on the floor by his feet where Emma was sure it would get toppled over at any moment. 

“Wait, lad, there’s an ornament for you in the box as well,” Hook said, reaching in and pulling out a mini replica of Henry’s book, the title stenciled in gold leaf on the cover and the magic author’s pen resting across it at an angle. 

Henry blinked down at it, mouth open in surprise like his mother’s was only moments before. “Wow, thanks Killian. It’s really cool. I thought I’d seen all the ornaments you made. How did you sneak this one past me?”

“A pirate never reveals his secrets,” Killian replied with a grin and a wink. “Go ahead and hang it on the tree, lad.”

Henry contemplated the tree for a moment, and then chose a spot right in the front, at eye level, and it pleased Emma that he seemed to want to give it a place of honor. She was so happy the two of them were growing closer.

Then he turned and cleared his throat, shuffling nervously for a moment before speaking.

“I uh may have made you guys some ornaments too. They’re nothing like these. We made them in school at craft time. Don’t get me wrong, Grandma’s a good teacher and all, but I think she forgets sometimes that we’re not in fourth grade anymore.”

“Whatever they’re made from, I’m sure they’re quite good,” Killian reassured him with a hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah kid, go get ‘em,” Emma agreed. 

Quick as a flash, Henry was up the stairs and back down again with a folder in his hands. He opened it and a small pile of silver glitter fluttered to the floor. 

“This one is for you, Killian.” And he pulled out a black and silver hook made from construction paper and glue and the ubiquitous glitter. “The kids at school think your hook is cool, so I thought….”

“It’s wonderful, lad. Thank you. I’ll hang it right now.” And he too took a moment to carefully choose a special spot on the tree to hang the paper hook. 

“And this one’s for you, mom,” Henry continued, and handed her a yellow card stock version of her bug, with a silver-glittered bumper. 

Emma’s eyes grew misty, and she blinked and tried to swallow down the enormous ball of emotion lodging in her throat. This was all she’d ever wanted with her son, all she’d missed for ten years, his homemade arts and crafts, drawings to hang on the refrigerator, and hundreds of other precious mementos. She had fake memories of those things, thanks to Regina, but it was not the same as having the real version. She made a mental note to thank her mom for forgetting that her students were no longer ten year olds.

“Mom?”

“Thanks, kid,” she murmured, grabbing him and squeezing him tight despite his muttered protestations. “I love it, and I love you.”

“I love you too,” he said, allowing a small smile when she pressed a kiss to the side of his head. “Can I go to my room now?”

“Sure, kid. Just keep the music to a low roar, okay.”

“I will. Hey, don’t come in without my permission though. Operation: Gift Wrap is in full swing.”

“We won’t,” she assured him with a pleased smile, and he was off at a speed that could rival a magical transport.

“The lad blows through like a sudden squall,” Killian said, affectionate teasing in his voice as he took in the mess of the living room. “Gets it from his mom, I suspect.”

“Ha ha,” she replied with a dry smile. “Let’s see what other surprises you have in that box.”

She reached in and pulled out an elaborate carving of a beanstalk, vines and leaves twining upward to a little puff of cloud.

“To commemorate our first adventure, love.”

Next she found a compass, needle pointing north, and she smiled. Her fingertips caught the bumpy texture on the back of it, and she turned it over to find a neatly carved inscription. 

‘I will always find my way back to you.’

“The quest for that compass showed me what a remarkable lass you are. I was quite taken with you then, even though I was still a villain at the time,” he said, casting his gaze toward the floor in shame.

“I’m the one that left you chained up there, afraid to trust,” she said, caressing his cheek with her fingertips. “And I love the compass. It’s perfect,” she said, pulling him down for another quick kiss. “I was quite taken with you too,” she said, a teasing imitation of his words, “which is why I left you behind. It scared me how much you got to me.”

“Thank you, love,” he murmured, as if she’d just given him a gift instead of the other way around, stroking her hair between his thumb and finger like it was the rarest of silks. 

She smiled again and turned her attention back to his box of ornaments, which seemed to be endless. In it, she found: 

— a swan and a hook, intertwined to form the shape of a heart—

“Because we make quite the team, Swan.”

— a magic bean—

He swallowed hard at this one, and scratched at the back of his neck before confessing, “I stole the bean from you, and that nearly cost you Henry. But it was your speech about being part of something that reminded me I could make better choices, that I could be a better man. It’s why I turned my ship around.”

“It’s all forgiven. You know that, right?” she asked, running her fingers gently across his neck and up into his hair, along the same path he was prone to scratching at nervously. 

“Aye love, and I’ll forever be grateful.”

— a pair of swords—

“A reminder that we will never again fight against one another, but always together, no matter what we face.”

— his own version of her bug—

“It’s quite the vessel you captain there, Swan.”

— a rose, pink like the field of middlemists from Camelot—

“Because you put your faith in me to help banish the dark voices.”

—a sheriff’s star slightly overlapping a deputy’s badge—

“I will always, always be by your side, love.”

Finally, she took out the last ornament: a miniature version of their home, painted in the same shade of blue, with the porch and turret and every detail painstakingly rendered. 

“Our home. Because the future is nothing to be afraid of.”

She didn’t know what to say, because she wasn’t as good with words as he was, and she’d never had anyone love her the way that he did, so truly and thoroughly as to leave her breathless and speechless with the sheer joy of it. 

After a moment of collecting herself, she swiped at her eyes, and said, “Killian, you make me so happy. I’m still not used to it, and some part of me hopes I never get used to it, because I don’t ever want to take this for granted.”

“Your happiness is all I ever want, Swan,” he said, smiling his own watery smile and catching one of her tears with his thumb. “Merry Christmas, my love.”

“Merry Christmas, Killian.”


End file.
